Isabel Lago – Violin

On February 27, 2016 at 7:30pm, Isabel Lago, one of four winners of the Richmond Music Festival Concerto Competition will be performing the first movement from Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64. In our weekly artist feature, we asked our Rising Star to answer a few questions:

How long have you been playing the violin?

I have been playing the violin for fourteen years now, since I was two.

Why did you choose to play the violin?

This is probably a lame answer, but I started playing the violin because of my parents. I was quite young so I didn’t really know of anything otherwise. As why I continued it out of my own decision and not my parents, I honestly don’t know remember. I guess I just fell in love with it, and still do love it.

What other instruments do you play?

I play piano, viola, guitar, and ukulele.

Why did you choose to perform this concerto?

The Mendelssohn concerto has been my favourite concerto for as long as I can remember. It was also one of the first pieces that I fell in love with as a kid. I remember listening to Itzhak Perlman playing it live and thinking to myself “one day I’m going to learn this”. So when my teacher asked me what concerto I would like to learn, I immediately knew the answer.

What were the most challenging aspects of learning your concerto and why? And how did you overcome them?

I think the most challenging aspect of this concerto would be the different technical skills that one must develop in order to play this. It is quite physically demanding with many double stops and octaves, and require not just physical practice but mental practice as well. For me, improving those skills were the hardest. Really analyzing and ripping apart the piece in the practice room for hours on end helped me overcome the challenge, and allowed me to learn so much.

Who is your favourite composer and why?

This would probably be the hardest question a musician could be asked. For me, it changes all the time. One day I could say “Brahms is my favourite!” and the next I could really hate Brahms. I think as of right now it would be Bach. All his work is beyond perfection. Take his violin sonatas and partitas for instance; all the layers of harmonies and emotions are truly incomparable.

When you are not practicing the violin you are probably ____(Fill in the blank)_____
Painting, drawing, reading, singing. Definitely not doing math.